The Story So Far...

The events that have led the three races to this point are part of a long history that began more than 10,000 years ago. As Sins of a Solar Empire has expanded, this march forward through time has continued....

10,000 Years Ago

The Vasari Empire ruled over countless worlds. Relentless and unstoppable, the empire's fleet, known as the Dark Fleet, sought to eclipse ever more until a cataclysm brought it all to an abrupt end. At first, a few of the empire's border worlds became dark, which initially was thought to be a communications error. However, when Dark Fleet scouts sent to re-establish communication with the fringe worlds that had gone silent never reported back, suspicion began to mount. One by one, worlds ever closer to their core worlds, which included the empire's capital, went dark, and the Vasari knew something was wrong. Eventually the unknown terror silenced the capital world. When this happened, the entirety of the Dark Fleet was amassed, and sent to fight whatever was destroying their worlds. Only one ship, heavily damaged, it's crew driven mad with fear, came back. When the citizens of one of the Empire's outermost worlds found it, they made the decision to abandon the empire. They loaded as many people as they could onto their remaining vessels, and ran, only stopping to gather enough resources to make the next leg of their journey. Everywhere the Exodus Fleet stopped, they left a beacon behind, and one by one, all of their beacons fell silent. Whatever destroyed their empire was chasing them, in a relentless and inexorable pursuit...

1000 Years Ago

After the formation of the Trade Order, emissaries found a single world orbiting a giant red star on the periphery of what was to become Trader Space. The people of that desert planet were eventually found to be practicing the utmost in scientific and social deviancy; psionic technology and psychokinetic drugs were commonplace amongst all levels of their society, even their children. These were ancient Trade Order taboos long since thought to be outlawed. Shocked and disgusted, the Trader Worlds conspired to have their forgotten brethren exiled far outside the territory they were claiming as their own. They exiled them to a desert world, and over time, simply forgot that they existed.

30 Years Ago

The Trader Worlds prospered in an era of lucrative trade and relative peace. Stories of their ancestor's wars had long since passed into the depths of the oldest archives; the methods and machines by which they conducted those affairs long since buried. Consequently, when the Vasari Exodus Fleet arrived, the outlying Trader Worlds paid dearly.

As the Vasari began to conquer the worlds of the Trade Order, the Order suspended it's commercial agenda, and recreated itself as the Trader Emergency Coalition, an organisation dedicated to fighting the Vasari and protecting their people. The TEC gradually began to retool it's commercial fleet into a vast war machine, and slowly but surely, they began to push back the Vasari.

20 Years Ago (Sins of a Solar Empire)

The Exiled have returned; a transformed people calling themselves "The Advent". With a vast fleet of advanced warships and mysterious weapons, they bring a growing number of worlds under their control. The already struggling Trader Emergency Coalition finds itself caught in a two-front war that appears utterly hopeless.

The fate of the galaxy is at hand and one must rise to face the Sins of a Solar Empire.

15 Years Ago (Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment)

After nearly 15 years, the war which has raged across dozens of star systems neared a stand-still. The great fleets of the Trader Emergency Coalition, the Vasari Empire and the Advent approached stalemate. With the fronts temporarily stabilized, each race took the time to regroup and entrench. Great defensive battlestations were deployed and critical choke points fortified, while all sides prepared for an all-out offensive.

5 Years Ago (Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity/Diplomacy)

With more than a quarter century of constant warfare behind them, the factions began to look for alternative solutions to their conflict. Many of those in the Trader Emergency Coalition feared that their people were losing their identity, while others felt their leaders failed them after promising safety that wasn’t delivered. Some members of the Advent started to wonder if their course of vengeance was the right one to follow, while the Vasari simply wanted to escape the region with as many resources as possible. Such conditions lead to opening of talks between the three major races for the first time, in the hopes that their envoys would finally bring peace.

Now (Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion)

While many were hopeful that diplomacy would finally end the war, differing opinions on what should be done, along with the depleted power of the controlling factions, has lead to a splintering of the groups involved.

The loyalist members of the Trader Emergency Coalition adopt a policy of isolation, focusing on enhanced defenses to ride out the rest of the war. Those who rebel against the coalition take on a purely militant view, coming to the opinion that the only way to bring peace is by ultimately crushing all who oppose them - especially xenos.

For the first time in their history, the war creates a schism in the Advent Unity. The loyalists seek to continue their policy of revenge against the Traders, and to assimilate all others to the Unity’s influence. However, others amongst the Advent suspect that a corrupting influence from within has diverted the Unity from its proper destiny.

The divide created in the Vasari Empire is less pronounced, but just as severe to their people. With the Vasari now practically frantic to move on to new space, the loyalist faction abandons cooperation and decides to take the resources they need by any means necessary. Having accepted the need to work together, the rebel faction feels that their best chance for survival is to work with the other races and bring them along to flee the approaching enemy.

The Races of Sins of a Solar Empire

Sins of a Solar Empire brings you into the epic conflict between the Trader Emergency Coalition, the advanced Advent, and the mysterious Vasari as all three strive to achieve absolute dominance over the galaxy. Each race brings to the table its own unique abilities and history that impact how you play the game.

The Trader Worlds enjoyed a golden era of lucrative trade and relative peace under the strict guidelines of the interplanetary Trade Order. They had forgotten their ancient history of war and replaced it with a future of endless prosperity. The arrival of the Vasari caught the Traders completely unprepared.

Advance exploratory waves from the Vasari Exodus Fleet hastily crushed and colonized over a dozen worlds. Political infighting amongst the Trade Order representatives and the independent Opulentsia, delayed the first military response by months. Finally, they sent everything they had to repel the invaders; a cobbled band of ships designed to combat piracy. The untrained, undisciplined, and poorly equipped crews met a swift demise.

Disasters continued for years, but the resilient Traders slowly learned to apply their perfection of the economic engine into an ever more powerful war machine. Factories, trade routes, and savvy businessmen were now one with star bases, supply lines and master tacticians.

Unfortunately, the disastrously poor cohesion of the independently operated planetary fleets often negated this progress. As the Vasari approached the central worlds, it became clear that their advance could not be stopped without higher levels of coordination. The Trade Order could not fulfill this role because its mandate forbade interference with the sovereign rights of the member planets. Thus, the Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC) formed despite strong opposition to the loss of planetary autonomy.

United under one authority, the TEC finally stalled the Vasari advancement, but the reprieve was brief. Their deviant brethren, exiled one-thousand years ago, have returned with a colossal fleet of sophisticated war ships and now wreak havoc across the undefended sectors. With their entire force dedicated to maintaining the Vasari line, the TEC faces a near hopeless dilemma.

The ancient Vasari Empire once ruled over countless worlds. Beginning at the galactic core, the empire expanded uniformly, brought hundreds of alien races under its control, and showed no signs of slowing down.

Most species encountered were young enough to be subjugated peacefully, although, some resisted and were harshly enslaved. Those who had expanded into space were quickly exterminated. Once conquered, most species were integrated into the Vasari social structure as “valued citizens”. The Vasari locked each planet down and ruled from vast orbital structures, finding a minimal surface presence more effective for both production and the minimization of rebellion.

When the first of the inner planets fell, analysts initially assumed that the local species had somehow managed to rebel. They immediately requested a wing of the Dark Fleet to restore order but no status reports were ever received. Instead, three more planets dropped from the communications grid. The probability of multiple, simultaneous, and successful rebellions was exceptionally remote. Internal Intelligence concluded that a renegade force from within the Vasari engineered a revolt. As deliberations proceeded on how best to deal with the traitorous acts, another series of planets were lost, including the ancient Vasari homeworld. The unknown enemy’s rate of expansion far exceeded even that of the entire Dark Fleet. As a last resort, the Dark Fleet Veerr brought the bulk of their forces back from the expansionary frontier and massed for a blind assault on whatever was eating its way out from the central worlds.

The inhabitants of a perimeter planet were surprised when a single warship of the Dark Fleet appeared out of Phase Space bearing signs of heavy damage. Their curiosity and confusion quickly gave way to fear when they boarded the ship and found the crew apparently mad with terror.

In a rare act of autonomy, the colony decided it would be best to take precautions and temporarily evacuate to a system far from the Empire.

The refugees waited for signs of a safe return but instead, the signal from their warning beacons ceased. The lifetimes of the warning beacons were used to estimate the speed of the threat. It would not be long before their current position would be compromised. Additional beacons were placed at their current location and the group moved on to a considerably further destination.

Settling for a time, the refugees started to build colonies, construct new ships, and extract resources. Ultimately, their goal was to uncover the nature of the threat, to research technologies that might aid in its destruction, and to restore the rule of the Empire. For the next ten thousand years this pattern would repeat - the growing Vasari Exodus Fleet only ever a generation ahead of the relentless.

When the Vasari arrived in Trader Space ten years ago, they were confident in their ability to quickly deal with the locals. Initially, the victories were painless – the scouts alone procured the initial settlements – but as time went on it became clear that the local space-faring species would not be so easy to eliminate.

Now, the Vasari are caught in a stalemate, and in some positions, on the verge of being pushed back. A state of panic ensues. Already too entrenched in this disastrous war, the Vasari are simply unable to withdraw without catastrophic losses. Even worse, the conflict is consuming resources faster than can be put into the reserve. They will not be able to fuel the next phase of their exodus and time is running out.

The origins of the Advent began well before recorded history. It is said they began as one of many broken peoples who sought spiritual escape on peripheral worlds following the great wars.

The earliest known records trace back to the formation of the Trade Order. At its inception, the Order sent emissaries to recruit all known inhabited planets into the organization. One such group discovered a single desert world orbiting a massive red star surprisingly populated by a thriving civilization. Excited by the profitability of this potential market, the Order authorized immediate integration and the emissaries initiated contact. The representatives of the planet decidedly rejected the membership offer.

Not willing to accept failure, the Order sent a series of market research teams to acquire data that could be used to formulate a more elaborate strategy. They received a single, incomplete report containing disturbing information.

Shocking acts of deviancy, at every level of society, violated the venerable taboos common to all the Trader Worlds. Sinful cerebral integration technologies, unrestricted biological experimentation, strange forms of collectivism, and the wholesale usage of countless neurochemicals were but a few of the transgressions.

The Trader Worlds overwhelmingly voted that such an aberration had no place within the territories of their new Order. With an instinctive fear, the Traders took control of the planet by force and exiled the inhabitants far into uncharted space.

The exiles would integrate the story of their origins into myths and prophecies. They believed that their destiny was to exact retribution and assume their rightful place in the galaxy. One thousand years later, when it became clear that the rare and precious resources that empowered their unique way of life approached exhaustion, the society unanimously decided to return to their original home and fulfill their prophecies, hoping to attain revenge from the foes who banished them.